


the sand understands when we do not

by Skullszeyes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Attempt(s), Brother-Sister Relationships, Child Neglect, Children, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Not Beta Read, One Shot, POV Gaara (Naruto), Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29771121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Gaara spends some time with his siblings until they're attacked.
Relationships: Gaara & Kankurou & Temari
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	the sand understands when we do not

**Author's Note:**

> I'm rewatching Naruto with my younger sister. She's never watched it, so she wanted too, and Gaara has always been my favorite character. I love him so much! :D My sister doesn't fully understand, but that's okay. Also, I used a scene from the anime as inspiration for this fic.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.

He didn’t understand what was happening, and because of the lack of understanding, Gaara was alone.

The loneliness ached in his chest. Made everything he has ever known feel impossible, even if he was forever protected by the sand.

He wanted to understand why his father looked at him coldly, why he barely said a word to him. There wasn’t fear in his eyes like Gaara was used to that came from the villagers. It was something else, maybe a keen understanding of what Gaara was besides being a son to the Kazekage. There was more to it, and Gaara was too young to know what it was.

He spent some time playing with the sand during one afternoon. Oddly, and more interestingly, Temari and Kankuro were there with him. Sometimes they weren’t allowed near him. Another thing he would never understand, because he didn’t see fear in their eyes like he had seen in the villagers. There wasn’t even hate that came solely from their father.

Did they not understand as well? Is that the reason they were there?

He didn’t fully know what the answer was, but he had spent time with them whenever he could, or whenever they were all allowed to be in the same presence.

Temari was the oldest with her blonde hair, and Kankuro was the middle child.

The three of them played with the sand. Temari humming a soft song, completely fixated with what she was creating. Kankuro was making a sand castle from a few buckets. Gaara was smiling.

Kankuro crawled over to Gaara, and Temari watched, brows arched and curious at what he was doing.

He had a smile on his face when he drew close.

Gaara’s heart raced at the look of his brother, somewhat not fully understanding the look since he rarely gotten something like that unless it came from Yashamaru.

“Let me help, Gaara,” Kankuro said, a sneaky smile on his face. He had dragged the buckets to Gaara who hadn’t needed them when the sand created what he imagined, what he deemed fit for it to create. Sometimes...the sand did more than that based on the chaotic emotions that swirled in Gaara’s body.

Today wasn’t about the chaos. This was different, and he liked different.

Gaara smiled, giving his brother a friendly nod.

Temari had also joined them, and the three were creating odd looking structures with the sand.

“If father comes,” Temari said, her eyes on the sand, her fingers creating small designs along the sides, “we’ll be separated again.”

Gaara blinked. She knew, and Kankuro knew.

“We’ll just have to make more castles some other time,” Kankuro said quietly.

“We could runaway,” Gaara said, surprised by the timid voice that left his lips. He didn’t look at his siblings, he already knew the answer he would get.

“They’ll look for us,” Temari whispered.

“We’re too…” Kankuro glanced up at Gaara, “important to be ignored.”

 _Important._ Gaara didn’t feel important. The word itself was heavy to swallow, a spike leaving a terrible pain in his chest. If it were real enough, if it could hurt him, he was sure that in some way, Gaara would be marred with it even if he didn’t understand completely what it was or what it meant.

“Gaara,” Temari said, she reached for his hand but hesitated when he met her eyes. The look of fear was radiating there, building slowly, but it was there. It made the pit in Gaara’s body hurt. He wanted to tear that fear away from her. “Shh, calm down, come here.”

She was whispering, almost frantic if she would raise her voice, but she wasn’t really looking at him. No. She was looking past him.

Kankuro swiftly rose to his feet, blocking the figures entering the area that wasn’t meant for others besides the children of the Kazekage.

Gaara moved toward Temari, unsure of what was happening until he noticed three individuals smirking at the entrance. Their headbands told him that they were of the village, but why were they staring at them.

“Come here,” Temari whispered.

Gaara looked at her and moved closer, then suddenly, Temari pulled Gaara into her arms. The feeling was different and he could already sense the sand shifting, moving, as if it were going to twist and attack her. However, he did his best to hold it off. He didn’t want to harm her simply because she was holding him.

She turned her body slightly, making sure that Gaara wasn’t fully in the ninja’s line of sight. Her gaze furrowed, and her teeth clenched, while her arms were soft around him. There was anger in her eyes, but still...the fear was dominating most of her body as it were shaking.

“They can’t harm me,” Gaara told her.

“I know, I just...don’t want them to try,” Temari said.

She knew.

He wanted to understand more, and it made him feel odd inside. He wanted to ask her how she knew, but it’s not like he could’ve hid what he had done whenever he was too angry, to frightened, too...threatened.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Kankuro told the three men. His voice didn’t shake. There was resolve in the way he stood his ground, even though he was much younger than the ones who were smirking at them.

Gaara could feel their hidden intent. It seeped off them in waves as they reached for kunai’s. 

“Too important?” Gaara whispered. He was shaking, but not from fear, no...from the lack of understanding that the three of them weren’t really sure who was important and who wasn’t. “They’re here for me.”

Temari’s arms tightened. “No,” she whispered, “don’t go, don’t do what they want you to do. We’ll be separated again, and...we won’t be able too—”

“Get out of the way, kid,” one of the shinobi’s spoke up.

Kankuro growled. “No one but the Kazekage is meant to step past that threshold, and we’re the kids to the Kazekage. So, how about you get out of here before you lose your ranks!”

They laughed, amused and bitter. “Who do you think told us to come in here.”

“Don’t harm the two oldest.”

“Only the red headed one,” they snickered.

Gaara frowned at their painful words. He tried to squirm out of Temari’s arms. It would be better if they separated. If they weren’t together. He could handle these shinobi on his own. He didn’t need to be protected by Temari and Kankuro, he was already protected by the sand.

“Leave,” Temari called, her arms held tight onto Gaara. “He’s our brother. Leave, get out of here, you’re not hurting him!”

“Temari...let me—”

“No,” she said against his ear, quivering with fright and anger. “No, Gaara, I am tired of them doing this. I am tired of not understanding. I’m tired of father doing this to you.”

Pain flickered in her voice, and she squeezed harder as a whimper left her lips.

“I don’t want you to be alone.”

Gaara’s eyes watered at her words, at her warmth. “Kankuro...come closer to us.”

Kankuro swallowed thickly, his gaze unwavering as he glared at the three shinobi, but he did what Gaara had said, he stepped back, then knelt down beside them. His eyes didn’t leave the shinobi.

Gaara took in a steady breath, and he let the sand move with instinct towards them. He wanted them out, to leave the three of them alone. He didn’t want the kind of fear pulsing in Temari and Kankuro’s bodies, in their eyes, even if there was a bit of anger.

The shinobi threw their multiple kunai at them, including the shuriken. They cut through the air, but as they drew close. Gaara stared at Kankuro’s body tensing at what was about to happen, and Temari holding him tightly.

The sand moved up in abrupt wall between the group and his siblings. The wall was high enough that it cast out the sun, while the three of them were surroundings by a thin layer of sand. If the kunai and shuriken got close enough, the layer would thicken around them, protecting them.

The wall of sand moved closer to the shinobi. Gaara closed his eyes, sensing throughout the area full of sand that the group was retreating even how much they tried to attack the sand. It was all futile.

“Are they gone?” Temari asked, staring at the wall of sand.

Kankuro had gotten to his feet and wandered over to it. Gaara slowly let it fall, but enough for his siblings to marvel over it.

“Wow, this is amazing,” Kankuro said, smiling back at Gaara.

Temari was also enthralled by it before the entire wall fell completely, not bothering to harm any of them.

Gaara smiled shyly, even as Temari and Kankuro rushed back over to him, telling him how amazing he was, and even hugging him. The warmth of both of them had drowned out the pain in his chest. It was gone...even though he knew that it might come back.

“Temari, Kankuro.”

Gaara blinked at the familiar voice, and the three of them looked up to see their father standing at the entrance where the shinobi were. He had his arms crossed, and a steady stoic look in his eyes.

“Father…” Temari breathed, her arms faltering.

Kankuro even looked despaired.

“Come along,” their father said.

Temari turned to Gaara and gave him a smile, “We’ll be back, okay. Don’t be too lonely without us.”

Gaara frowned at her words, even as Kankuro ruffled his hair. He watched his siblings rush over to their father and disappear in the shadows.

He looked at the sand, and the kunai and shuriken.

He understood...that he was the danger. It was just unfair...to leave him like this, alone with those gnawing thoughts as the pain began to resurface.

Gaara stared at the emptiness of where his siblings were, and sat down in the sand, cutting into the sand with the kunai, humming Temari’s song, and trying to recall the feeling of Kankuro’s hand in his hair.


End file.
